HALLE BERRY !!!

Halle Berry is well-known as a beauty queen, model, the recipient of the 2002 Oscar for Best Actress – but it is not generally known that she is a Type 1 diabetic.

Halle Berry was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1968, the youngest of two daughters of Jerome and Judith Berry.She started modelling at a young age and the determined to succeed, she won the Miss Teen All-American pageant in 1985 and the following year was a runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant. She then decided to turn her hand to acting.

It was during the taping of the television sitcom called “Living Dolls” in 1989 that Halle went into a diabetic coma. Shortly afterwards she was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. Determined not to let this have any impact on her ambitions, Halle set about learning to control this condition, while continuing her acting career.

Several movies followed, amongst which Jungle Fever, Strictly Business, Losing Isaiah, The Flintstones, Girl 6, The Rich Man’s Wife, Race the Sun, X-Men and Monster’s Ball. It was for her role in this last movie that she was awarded the Oscar for Best Actress.

But how has she coped with her diabetes, in amongst dealing with this meteoric rise to fame?

“Sometimes, in the middle of a work day, it can be a little inconvenient to say: I have to go shoot up (with insulin). Can you excuse me please? I used to think in the beginning :Oh, they’re going to think I’m a prima donna. But I got over that saying: This is life.”

Being a Type 1 diabetic, Halle’s daily routine would entail regular daily blood glucose level tests, and possibly also several insulin injections. She has to be extremely careful with what she eats, and in her case, not just because she is watching her weight, but to keep her blood glucose levels under control.

Halle admits that her favourite foods are butter pecan ice cream and salt and vinegar potato chips – neither of which she can eat often or in more than a minute quantity without serious health consequences.

Halle is also an active volunteer for the Juvenile Diabetes Association,  she works hard to donate her time to raise money for research for organizations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Association.In 2004, she became the first national ambassador of the National Diabetes Education - Diabetes Aware Campaign with the support of the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Novo Nordisk. The Diabetes Aware Campaign sponsors a website dedicated to teaching people with diabetes how to effectively manage their disease. It also offers a place for family and friends to go to learn more about diabetes and diabetes management.

However, her recent statement that she's gone from having type 1 to type 2 diabetes did raise a lot of eyebrows - because it's impossible!